Do you consider real estate a business or an investment?

[Anne M.]

We started looking into investing in US real estate a few weeks ago.

We're looking to diversify our investment portfolio. Right now, it's all in the stock market (mostly index funds). 

Listening to the podcast, reading the blogs and posts here on the forum, I see that many investors treat this more like a business. They put a lot of time and effort into finding just the right asset, leveraging it and actively increasing their portfolio. It all looks very interesting but I have my own business that I work at and I'm not really looking to develop another one.

Should I even look into investing in rental properties then? How time consuming is it? And by that I also mean time required to learn the basics to the point where the risk is within reason and we get at least 8-10% annual yield after expenses. Anything less than that, and buying index funds is so much easier and safer (we're long term investors), so why even consider real estate? I currently have an offer for a turnkey rental property in Memphis and I wonder if it's really worth even the hassle of going through with the buying process. If it's going to end up costing us more time down the road, maybe we should just take the $70K and put it into more index funds?

I'd love to hear from other investors here who do this as an actual investment for passive income rather than as a business. What's your impression following several years of owning a rental property? Is it worth the hassle? Is it really a form of investment (passive income) or is it a business that requires managing?